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What & When to disclose

Inventors/researchers should submit a disclosure form to the OCIR for all inventions and copyrightable works that you feel may solve a significant problem and/or have significant commercial value. In general, an invention or work is fully conceived when you can reduce it to practice without any further innovation. If government funds were used for your research, you are required to file a prompt disclosure so the Texas State may meet its reporting requirements to the sponsoring agency. Similar requirements may exist for other sponsored projects.

The disclosure form documents the circumstances under which your invention occurred or the details of the completion of your copyrightable work and provides the information necessary to evaluate patentability, inventor/authorship issues, commercial potential, and any obligations to research sponsors.

As an example, you may consider disclosing an invention as you prepare a proposal to take a fully conceived idea and seek funding to prove or disprove its efficacy. However, you may wish to postpone disclosing an invention that you have a general idea on solving a problem and are seeking funding to explore how to implement it.